The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1887-06-24

if ever favored site existed. Being at
the key to the passage between five
large lakes, Tavares will he an import
ant railroad center. and already tracks
lead off in six directions on as many
roads
The creation of Lake County has made
things lively down here, and Tavares.
Eustis, Lisbon and Leesburg are all set
ting their caps to catch the new county
seat Leesburg will prove formidable
rival in this counting match" but the
big opera house in process of construc-
ton here, by Mr. Abrams. may
prove favorable halt in Ia
wares hands. Several people were
asked what will be done with that big
building when it is finished:" All those
people expressed themselves as
trying to solve the same ques-
ton" Presently the writer put the
question to quiet looking chap who
said softly ''just you wait until we get
the county seat here, then we'll show
YOU what we can do with that big build
ing"
Tavares has twenty trains per day. in
every direction several big brick blocks
finished off into stores, and over them in
to genuine New York flats. which are
going begging for a rent, also like New
York, viz: $40 per month!
Lake Dora, just south of the town, is IA
pretty lake. but her banks are detiled
with wrecks of old sawmills and several
defunct steamboats,, which it would lie "A
mercy to burn and remove forever from
sight.
This is the magic city we read so much
about, and if the magic holds out ten
years longer. the city will be a big one,
and reality instead of magical.
There are some skeeters here, As well
as at Punta Gorda: even the citizens of
Tavares do not deny that mosquitoes are
plentiful. Indeed, they glory in the size
and well-kept condition of the insects.
They are none of the little black, half
starved Charlotte Harbor variety. They
are pretty well fed and well-kept.
A small boy captured your correspond
dent at the train and led him to "A hazel
where many locomotive engineers oiso
hid themselves, and as your scribe is a
mechanical engineer, he made himself
comfortable at the Tavares House.
Hog and hominy were set before him,
also hot biscuits, Eight" bread, two
kinds of beef. fruits and vegetables, but
ter, milk, tea or cOffe. Who says the
people starve in Florida? We scribe tips
the beam at els pounds and has tackled
Florida grub" for seven or eight
months, but somehow he don't seem t.
starve or grow poor worth cent.
After supper a big watermelon proved
too tempting and resulted in the total de
struction of the melon
A dream visited the writer, and. per
chance, that dream was part and parcel
or even the ghost of that departed
melon.
Right east from my hotel window, Is
the new opera house, and the derricks
stand stiff and erect ON its unfinished
roof. At the station is a large pile of ar
tesian well boring utensils, and i'm the
dream these got all mixed up with the
| opera house.
1t seemed as if your correspondent
was i'm the opera house and that he lay
chained to the floor, while away up on
| the roof workmen were driving an ar
| tesian well, using the roof as a point O
vantage insteed of the derrick usually
employed.
1t danced and churned upon our body
and every time it struck -. Oh! TIN
agony was indescribable, but it hit ex
actly in the region of that melon ever,
| time. Blow after blow came as TIN
heavy drill descended i'm rapid strokes
Finally, the agony became unbearable
We awakened, not to find a well digging
but that a squad of mosquitoes had ton
a hole through the top of the bed can
opy, and that one big chap-the king
perhaps-had managed to get his bill
through the netting and was deIiber
ately drawing forth our life-blood. Tn
canopy had, unthinkingiy, been lief
within three or four feet of the bed, an'
after raising it another foot, also takin;
the precaution to keep in the middle o
the bed, the .'sweet restOrer" gathere,
digging were all lost i'm oblivion.
| JAMES +. HOBART,
| Interlachen, Fla.